Science & Technology

Remarkable footage shows clear example of ball lightning in Alberta

By T.K. Randall
July 7, 2025 ·  15 comments

A rare sighting. Image Credit: Ed and Melinda Pardy / Global News / YouTube The clip, which is possibly the clearest video of the phenomenon ever captured, was filmed on Wednesday evening during an intense period of stormy weather in Alberta, Canada.

It shows the ball lightning hovering and moving slowly across a grassy field around 1km away.

"After a rather vicious lightning strike, we saw a ball of fire kind of... about 20 feet above the ground," said Ed Pardy who filmed the spectacle while watching it happen with his wife.

His footage also captured the moment that the ball of lightning vanished after about 23 seconds."Before it went out there was a bit of a pop and the whole thing kind of disintegrated and went away," he said. "I was glad it was far away from our house."

Ball lightning is a particularly rare meteorological event that happens under very specific circumstances and which is very difficult to reproduce on demand in a laboratory.

While there have been a small number of reported sightings over the years, this one is particularly special because of the quality of the footage to go along with it.

You can check out the video for yourself below.


Source: Global News | Comments (15)

Tags: Ball Lightning